‘The Shape of Water,’ Guillermo del Toro's fairy tale romance, led the Golden Globe nominations on Monday with seven nods, including for best motion picture drama and actress Sally Hawkins.

‘The Post’ and ‘Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri’ followed with six nods and coming-of-age film ‘Lady Bird’ got four nominations.

The announcements will give the nominees a welcome boost going into the race for March's Oscars, with the influential Screen Actors Guild nominations to come later this week.

The awards season is expected to be overshadowed this year by the sexual misconduct scandal engulfing the movie industry.

The other best motion picture drama nominees are ‘Call Me By Your Name,’ another coming-of-age tale, World War II thriller ‘Dunkirk,’ media drama ‘The Post’ and ‘Three Billboards.’

Although more high-profile than the SAGs, the Golden Globes are seen as less of an indicator of Oscars glory, as a relatively small group of non-US journalists -- the Hollywood Foreign Press Association -- chooses the winners, rather than the industry itself.

On the television front, HBO drama ‘Big Little Lies’ -- already rewarded with several Emmys -- led with six nominations.

FX anthology series ‘Feud: Bette and Joan’ was close behind with four nominations, while ‘Fargo,’ ‘The Handmaid's Tale’ and ‘This is Us’ grabbed three each.

HBO comfortably led the television nominations with 12.

The 75th Golden Globe Awards will take place in Beverly Hills on January 7, with talk show host Seth Meyers presenting.